Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) is a dialysis treatment that differs from Hemodialysis (HD) because blood is not removed from the body and passed through a dialyzer, but a catheter is placed in the peritoneal cavity and fluid is removed and introduced directly into the peritoneal cavity. Blood is cleaned inside the patient using the patient's own peritoneum as a type of dialysis membrane. The two primary classes of PD are Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) and Continuous Cycling Peritoneal Dialysis (CCPD) (or Automated Peritoneal Dialysis (APD)). In CAPD, dialysis is performed continuously by positioning a bag of peritoneal dialysate at shoulder level and using gravity to pull the fluid into the peritoneal cavity. The used dialysate is then drained from the cavity and discarded. The time period that the dialysate is in the cavity is called the dwell time and can range from 30 minutes to 4 hours or more. CAPD is typically performed three, four, or five times in a 24-hour period while a patient is awake. CAPD requires no cycler to deliver and remove the fluid.
The effectiveness of peritoneal dialysis therapy can depend on several factors, unique to specific patients and the session. The factors, including the number of cycles in a session, the dwell time of a cycle, the volume of a cycle, and the composition of the peritoneal dialysate, can influence patient comfort and therapy effectiveness. The timing, frequency, and composition of peritoneal dialysate used in a previous session can also impact effectiveness. Data received from a previous peritoneal dialysis session may indicate a need to change the timing, frequency, and dialysate composition for a future peritoneal dialysis sessions to optimize treatment. However, known systems provide no mechanism to make changes to subsequent peritoneal dialysis sessions based on the changing needs of a patient from one dialysis session to the next. Instead, known systems and methods are limited to users entering settings or relying on pre-programmed settings without adjustment from session to session. The known systems and methods must rely on pre-set settings because they lack the capability to self-generate an appropriate peritoneal dialysate or adjust peritoneal dialysate based on newly received data.
Hence, there is a need for systems and methods that can modify one or more patient or dialysis machine parameters from session-to-session, or “inter-session,” to optimize a course of peritoneal dialysis therapy and to improve patient comfort. There is also a need for systems and methods to generate or adjust peritoneal dialysate in accordance with any adjusted dialysate prescription based on received data. The need extends to systems and methods that can make modifications to a peritoneal dialysis prescription between peritoneal dialysis sessions to optimize future peritoneal dialysis therapy sessions. There is also a need for systems and methods to generate or adjust peritoneal dialysate in accordance with any adjusted dialysis prescription.